Wilderness to sell Great Explorations for P16,8 m
Wilderness Safari which recently had a shareholding structure shake-up ushering in the likes of British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, is selling one of its subsidiaries-Great Explorations, arguing it has not been performing well over the years.
The latter is owned by Wilderness subsidiary, Okavango Wilderness Safaris (OWS). Great Explorations is being sold to Mountbatten Limited for whopping P16, 8 million. Great Exploration operates Xigera Camp in the prestigious Okavango delta. “Xigera Camp has performed below expectations in the preceding five years and requires a substantial capital investment for refurbishment,” noted statement signed by group company secretary Lu-Anne Alexander. ‘
It is the Wilderness board’s position that the capital investment required will not be justified by the corresponding return on such investment. The board further understands that Mountbatten is willing to inject the required capital investment into the Camp. It is for this reason, together with a desire to improve Wilderness’ balance of ‘land’ and ‘water’ camps, that the proposed Transaction has been entered into’
Mountbatten is a 100 percent- owned subsidiary of Wine Investments Limited. It is considered to be a related party in view of the fact that Gavin Tollman is a member of the board of directors of Wine and the board of directors of Wilderness, and that until 11 July 2018, Wine owned approximately 33.97 percent of the share capital of Wilderness.
“An independent professional expert has considered the terms of the above proposed transaction and provided an opinion to the Wilderness board confirming that the proposed Transaction is fair and reasonable to the shareholders of Wilderness,” said Wilderness Safari.